


po tolo

by ManedWolf



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Afterlife, F/M, Gen, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 18:19:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10904817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManedWolf/pseuds/ManedWolf
Summary: He floats in darkness.





	po tolo

it didn't even hurt

one second standing  
laughing  
the next discorporate

doesn't feel like it  
feels wider awake than eternity

harry running  
screaming

"how does it feel to be a godfather, padfoot"

nearly curtains for him now too

grab him

he's so tiny  
no i shouldn't hold him  
he'll break

moony

good old moony  
best of us all really

best of a sorry lot

clever padfoot

where has your cleverness gotten you now

dark  
like soot  
like snivellus' oil-slick hair  
like night  
like dementors' o-round mouths  
like black

no stars but one  
brightest in the black sky

no how  
no when  
no why

could be tumbling  
could be streaking like a long-haired comet  
could be stuck stock still like a beetle pinned to a black card

no up  
no here  
no down  
no there  
no in  
no out

no anywhere

big guilty scared black eyes in a white face

caught him doing god knows what with kreacher

kick the elf

hit the brother

eating rats in a cave for harry

laughing my arse off with james behind peter's back  
he was so proud to be a rat

rats are dog food

so how did he end up eating us all

little white hands furtively smoothing down james' black hair  
"it's always so messy, you prat"  
little soft strokes  
did she think he didn't know then

hands held his universe  
always comes down to that in the end

her little white hands hold all the power  
she's a pinpoint of fire in the dark that stretches and stretches  
she pulled us all into her orbit  
gravity well like a white dwarf

even remus looked  
and hid behind his book  
and looked

and turned away and didn't look  
spent years and years not looking  
clever lupin  
but he still went round and round her too  
just another moon

"say hello to your new brother, sirius"

don't need another  
will have james already  
in ten years or so

prongs and his lily  
stag and his doe

stag's gone

african wizards knew her three thousand years ago

dogon tribe

little white hands pulling sirius into her orbit  
into the centre of the sky

doe's gone

now dog's gone

doggone

maybe 8.6 light-years gone by now  
wherever now is

god

i loved her too

"let me do it, padfoot"  
never thought to ask where had he grown a pair all of a sudden  
just relieved it wouldn't be me  
even for her  
for him

fire in heart  
(water for limbs)  
serpent family breeds serpent offspring  
but not this one no never

"gryffindor"

little white hands reaching  
angel voice laughing  
"come on, you can do it, not far now"

dog-paddling  
last  
few

white hands  
white light

I'm home.

**Author's Note:**

> A poem originally written for the "Tales of Dogs and Scoundrels" challenge at "Red and the Wolf" on LiveJournal
> 
> Prompts: Come (here) and  
> Water were your limbs, and the fire was her hair  
> And then the moonlight caught your eye and you rose through the air  
> Well, if you've seen true light, then this is my prayer  
> Will you call me when you get there  
> \- Cosmia, by Joanna Newsom
> 
> Yes, there is a Dogon tribe in West Africa that has records showing an awareness of Sirius B, white dwarf companion star to Sirius A, that goes back three millenia -- much to the puzzlement of modern astronomers, since "po tolo" cannot be seen by the naked eye.


End file.
